The White House is asking the US Supreme Court to reinstate Trump's travel ban

Twelve-year old Eman Ali of Yemen being reunited with her family at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco on February 5.
REUTERS/Kate Munsch
The Trump administration on Thursday night asked the US Supreme Court to reinstate President Donald Trump's executive order banning travel to the US from six majority-Muslim countries while it appeals a lower-court ruling that upheld a nationwide block on the ban last month.

The Department of Justice's petition asks the high court's nine-justice panel to rule on the legality of Trump's order. In a May ruling halting the order, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals argued that the travel ban "drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination."

In its appeal filed Thursday night, the DOJ argued that the lower court's ruling contained "several mistakes." DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said the ban was lawful, and was structured in the interest of national security.

"We have asked the Supreme Court to hear this important case and are confident that President Trump's executive order is well within his lawful authority to keep the nation safe and protect our communities from terrorism," Flores said in a statement.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the same assertion last month after the 4th Circuit Court's ruling, saying, "The Department of Justice strongly disagrees with the decision of the divided court, which blocks the president's efforts to strengthen this country's national security."

The Trump administration had vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court since the first of two versions of Trump's executive order on travel was slapped down by the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in February.